ILOILO City – To speed up testing for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has designed no-contact” specimen collection booths (SCB).
DOST Region 6 recently turned over the first SCB in Western Visayas to the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital (TLJPH) in Silay City, Negros Occidental.
With the booth, a medical staff can extract specimens from multiple patients without having physical contact with them.
It maintains a positive pressure inside the booth that comes from a ventilator with a filter in order to prevent outside contamination from coming in.
With the help of the pressure sensor, the health worker is notified of the real-time pressure inside the booth.
It also has a small built-in screen that displays the pressure difference inside the booth.
DOST-6 is set to distribute four more SCB units to the following hospitals in the region:
* Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City
* Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao, Iloilo City
* Western Visayas Sanitarium in Santa Barbara, Iloilo
* Don Jose Monfort Medical Center Extension Hospital in BArotac Nuevo, Iloilo
These hospitals were identified by the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6 as recipients of the SCB.
DOST-6 is now conducting the final inspection of the units and shall continue with the distribution to the hospitals as soon as the units are ready.
The DOST central office is allocating P20 million for the manufacturing, distribution, and installation of this innovation through its Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) and the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD). (Sol Salazar, DOST-6/PN)
